Experts on the legislative process explain how laws are made in a series of short videos produced by The Statute Law Society.
Legislation is fundamentally important in our legal system. It is the primary source of binding rules of law.
Parliament's function is to consider proposals and to produce statutes which change the law. The health of our democracy and the quality of our laws are bound up with the way in which legislation is produced.
The Statute Law Society seeks to promote understanding of issues to do with the legislative process and statutes – how they are made, how they are used in the courts and in society.
You can find out more about what they do and read articles about statute law on the Statute Law Society's website.
'Making Legislation' videos on YouTube
The Society have produced a series of short video interviews with people involved in the legislative process.
The 'Making Legislation' series is freely available on iTunesU and the Statute Law Society's YouTube channel.
The videos give you an idea of the way in which government forms a policy and turns it into binding law.
The series includes interviews with:
- Lord Falconer, former cabinet minister, on his experience getting proposals approved and taking them through Parliament
- Michelle Dyson, government lawyer, drawing on her experience in the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office
- Sir Stephen Laws, First Parliamentary Counsel, on his role as a drafter of statutes
- Parliamentary officials David Natzler (House of Commons) and Sarah Jones (House of Lords)
- Lord Justice Etherton on the role of the Law Commission in the legislative process
About the Statue Law Society
Founded in 1968, the Statute Law Society has members throughout Britain, Europe and the Commonwealth. The Society is a charitable body which aims to educate the legal profession and the public about the legislative process, with a view to encouraging improvements in statute law.
Image: An Act to Amend the Representation of the People in England and Wales (‘Great Reform Act’), 1832. Parliamentary Archives, ref: HL/PO/PU/1/1832/2&3W4n147.